Was the talking penis someone we should have known from the original series? I was surprised how many faces there were that I didn't immediately recognize (archers notwithstanding) considering they left out some of what I think are the more memorable ones. I know we already had a throw-back to the shinobi episode with some of the daughter of aku fights, so that may be all we get of that, but there's still The Gangsters, The Dog Archaeologists, Jump Good Man and Lulu. Poor Lulu. I'd be amazed if we didn't get some kind of update on them by the end.

After a 30 minute discussion with friends prompted by Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition 2000whatever, we decided that body paint is some sort of magic both clothed and not-clothed state. See-through clothing was also discussed, but ultimately that's just sort of like wearing invisible clothes: it appears you are not wearing anything, but you are clothed. Body paint is the opposite: you're not wearing anything, but you look like you are.

There was probably some kind of wicked magic that adhered the soot to them. I guess it was supposed to be like Aku's skin. I mean, it's more brutal and crazy than it is titillating, and obviously given the animation style no more revealing than just a body suit.

For the meat of the episode, I really enjoyed it. I like Ashi, and I like this journey she's taking. I don't REALLY care what kind of relationship she ends up having with Jack. If it's a mentor student relationship, fine. If it's romantic, they doesn't really bother me either. It's not like he saved her from a castle and got in there by the ancient right of having sprung you from the other guy's clutches.

As far as saving is concerned, I'd call them just about even now. He saved her from a life of evil and deception, and she saved him from madness, and looks like she'll do more saving in the near future.

There was probably some kind of wicked magic that adhered the soot to them. I guess it was supposed to be like Aku's skin. I mean, it's more brutal and crazy than it is titillating, and obviously given the animation style no more revealing than just a body suit.

I meant body-paint in general is titillating. Ashi wasn't, like you said, it was just brutal and crazy.

RE: Romance. She's young, granted, and I would prefer a mentor student relationship, maybe with an adoptive parent vibe because she's never experienced paternal love in her whole life (or any other kind for that matter), but Jack was only like 20 when his clock was stopped, and he's spent his whole life fighting monsters and going insane, so I think there's room for a romantic relationship too. Like I said though, I just like watching them hang out, and would like them to keep doing that, almost no matter how their relationship develops.

I guess, here's the thing. They are by all appearances both physically adults, but that's not really what I meant. If you're gonna say that Jack's clock stopped when he was roughly in his early 20sh, I'd agree - not because time shenanigans meant he stopped aging, but because he spent 50 years living a life of absolute denial and nonstop battle. Before being sent to the future, he traveled and trained a lot, but he was growing as a normal person, meeting people and learning things and living a normal life for his circumstances. In the first four seasons, even in the future, we saw a guy living a life, making connections with people and even making friends, but I got the strong impression that between seasons 4 and 5 there wasn't nearly as much of that - that he was essentially a robot-killing hermit. So in a very real sense, his life was put on pause when he was in his 20s, and now we can start to see that pick back up. Even if he's actually 70-something.

The problem is that by those same standards, Ashi's, like ... 4.

のほも is such a good word?? the concept is kind of hard to fully get across in translation, but basically it means a feeling of pure, deep, platonic affection, and i think thats beautiful

I really liked this homage because of how restrained and non-parody it is.

Also the narrative that leads up to it and then what happens after is pretty different, but in a way similar enough.

Someone seeking what they've been obsessed with finding for a long time

then

A climactic showdown of sorts

Even though Jack gets away in the end and the story continues. It's still sort of the climax of the first chapter. In a way he does die in those catacombs. He falls into the river, dead and then is reborn in the cave with the wolf.

The latest episodes haven't been impressing me nearly as much as the opening 3 did, but I still audibly chimed out a Baltimore style "Oh shit" when Ashi's mother showed up again. Good call on having her be apparent as an attacker before revealing who it actually was.

I mean, to take things to a bit of an exaggeration, if someone else were attempting to shut down criticism of something that too often uncomfortably borders statutory rape Lyrai would be writing a diatribe about how terrible that person was.

I'm willing to make accomondations for the fact that they had much less time than they'd have liked to make a full season (10 episodes) to tell the full story here, and I took Ashi's travels of seeing everything Jack did as decent character growth. The aformentioned trope listed earlier comes across as just dumping them out of the gate onto the protag's dick within 10 minutes.

To further assault the trope: Arguing about improbable combat skill falls apart when we had literally an entire episode outlining that she was being combat trained since birth, and regularly got the shit beat out of her which foreshadowed her eventual turn (as well as the arrow thing vs Mother)

The nude thing manages to be horrifying because turns out they were naked the entire time! Just with fucking charred skin everywhere.

Jack isn't perfect but it's still a damn sight better than most of the shit on TV, and if you want to bring in anime we can really get into actually creepy stuff as opposed to unfortunate implications of severely rushed storytelling due to having to spend several years wondering if you'll ever get to tell it again.

But no, go ahead, let's go blindly into tearing everything down, never enjoying anything ever again, because it's easier to complain than just enjoy something even despite faults. We can even change our name to Talking Time to match it.

Grath wrote:I mean, to take things to a bit of an exaggeration, if someone else were attempting to shut down criticism of something that too often uncomfortably borders statutory rape Lyrai would be writing a diatribe about how terrible that person was.

Nono, I called DispoNin a potential rape apologist, saying he'd blame the woman if someone posted here they got raped.